An Ontario court has overturned Jim Karahalios’ disqualification from the Conservative leadership race, though he still might not be able to make onto the ballot because of what he describes as the party’s “heavy-handed” sanctions.

A lawyer and creator of the “Axe the Carbon Tax” campaign, Karahalios broke the news on Wednesday in a Twitter thread that included a link to the ruling from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

He said while the court overturned his disqualification by the Conservative Party’s four-person appeals subcommittee and ordered that donations should be returned to his campaign account, it did not “have jurisdiction to judge [the] appropriateness” of sanctions levied against his bid.

Those sanctions, he said, require him to raise an additional $100,000 without using the party’s members list to secure a place on the ballot. The court has given him 14 days to raise the extra money.

“I’m currently reviewing court’s ruling to assess how best [to] re-enter [the] race in a competitive manner that respects Court’s ruling,” he wrote on Twitter.

Karahalios is married to Belinda Karahalios, the Ontario PC MPP for Cambridge.

Specifically, the ruling states that the party’s dispute resolution appeal subcommittee (DRAC) didn’t have the authority to disqualify Karahalios. Instead, that decision could only be made by the 18-member leadership election organizing committee, or LEOC.

“The authority to disqualify is reserved to the eighteen members of the LEOC, which has never formally or properly considered the matter of Mr. Karahalios’ status as a candidate,” reads the ruling by Justice Paul Perell.

Karahalios was disqualified by DRAC after a complaint was made by leadership candidate and Conservative MP Erin O’Toole, who alleged that Karahalios had in a letter defamed his campaign chair and engaged in “racist Islamophobic remarks that besmirched the expressed principles of the Conservative Party,” the ruling notes.

In response, Karahalios’ campaign was levied a $100,000 fine by the party but when he appealed the decision to DRAC, it decided to disqualify him altogether.

The ruling invalidated the disqualification but still requires Karahalios to pay the original fine within 14 days, though it notes that LEOC could still make a final decision on the matter.

May 15 marked the last day to sign up new (or returning) party members in time for their names to make it onto the official voters list for the leadership race.

Ballots need to be received by Aug. 21, although the party said the date of when the new leader will be announced will depend on what health guidelines and government orders are in place in August.

A poll from Mainstreet Research earlier in May suggested that Peter MacKay was leading the Conservative Party leadership race, although Erin O’Toole has an edge with second-choice supporters.

The May 11 telephone survey of 6,624 party members found 40 per cent of respondents back MacKay, followed by 34 per cent who are supporting O’Toole.

Nine per cent of respondents are backing Leslyn Lewis, followed by 5 per cent who are supporting Derek Sloan. Thirteen per cent were undecided.

The Conservative leadership race is determined by ranked ballot, meaning Sloan and Lewis supporters (and possibly Karahalios backers) could still greatly influence the result of the race, even if they draw significantly less support than the two perceived frontrunners.

In the 2017 leadership race, Andrew Scheer narrowly defeated Maxine Bernier on the final, 13th ballot, despite Bernier placing first in the first 12 rounds of balloting.